House price, making an offer!

Gilli01

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Mrs G and I have seen a house that we are thinking of putting an offer in for.

It was on the market for £190,000, but had a reduction not long ago of £15,000 (I reckon this was just a marketing ploy though to be honest), so now its on the market for £175,000.

What would be a good starting offer ? I was going to go in with £164,000, however a mate of mine reckons starting at £160,000 ;).

WHere would you start? I dont want to pay more than £170,000

Cheers folks
 
Personally, if it were me, I'd go in at 140k - based on asking less 20%, with an aim to meet in the middle, asking less 10%, the reasoning being that you can always increase your offer. The fact that it has been reduced is irrelevant, the asking price is what it is, and as you suspect that was just a ploy anyway.

However, it depends how much it's worth to you - if you go in low, and miss out if they sell to someone else, or if they think your offer derisory and refuse to deal with you (unlikely) how upset will you be?
 
> Mrs G and I have seen a house that we are thinking of putting an offer in for.

How much do you want it? How long has it been on the market? Did it start at 190K? (Look at globrix or similar to check).
 
Personally, if it were me, I'd go in at 140k - based on asking less 20%, with an aim to meet in the middle, asking less 10%, the reasoning being that you can always increase your offer.

This is the way to do it, you should always be prepared to lose rather than pay too much, unfortunately most people pay too much which is why prices are so frikin' high. You'd probably get it for around £160k but why not try and save the money, all they can do is say no or accept the offer.
 
You'd probably get it for around £160k but why not try and save the money, all they can do is say no or accept the offer.

How do you know they will probably get a 15k discount? Do you have knowledge of the area? Situation of the sellers? Seen the property.....?
 
Personally, if it were me, I'd go in at 140k - based on asking less 20%, with an aim to meet in the middle, asking less 10%, the reasoning being that you can always increase your offer. The fact that it has been reduced is irrelevant, the asking price is what it is, and as you suspect that was just a ploy anyway.

However, it depends how much it's worth to you - if you go in low, and miss out if they sell to someone else, or if they think your offer derisory and refuse to deal with you (unlikely) how upset will you be?

Offering 50k less than the original price? That's taking the ****.

I would go in at 5k less than you are willing to pay, and make it clear you don't have much room for movement. A house is worth what it's worth to you.
 
Offering 50k less than the original price? That's taking the ****.

The original price is irrelevant, as it's one of the oldest tricks in the book, retailers & double glazing firms have been doing it for years, overprice something, reduce it to what it should be, and all of a sudden it looks like a bargain - do you really believe Wonky Windows etc. are selling at less than half price?

Current asking price is the asking price, take it from there, and if you get a bargain, great, if you pay full asking if it's the house you want, then great.
 
I certainly won't be paying the asking price as it's not worth that. The last couple of houses that have gone on that street have been around the £155,000 region (give or take a pound or two).

The problem I have is Mrs G has fallen in love with it. Going to have to keep that secret from the seller.

Some good advice, thanks all. :thumbsup:
 
> The problem I have is Mrs G has fallen in love with it

Have you been looking for a long time, or is this the first (ish) house you've seen?
 
We've been looking on and off for a couple of years. It's not just the house, it's the area, street, schools too.

This is the 3rd house we've seen of our most recent search
 
3rd house seems a bit early to be 'loving' a house - when we were looking for this one we saw 15 in the first weekend :)
 
Ive just put my house on the market.

Personally i wouldnt go in too low as IMHO if its a house you really like. Yes you could try it and eventually meet in the middle but you could also get the venders back up. I was in the EA the other day and i could hear a telephone conversation. Someone had put a low offer in on a house, for whatever reason this upset the vender. The vender then told the EA not to entertain any offers (even asking price) from this buyer.

Probably an extreme 1 off case but you never know. People say its a buyers market, but dont forget the vender doesnt have to sell even if you offer asking price.

If it was me i would speak to the EA, see what (if any) offers had been made and take it from there. Or go for a second viewing and ask the vender out right. You dont have to go through the EA to sort out the sales figure, just inform the EA when youve come to an agreement and let them take over then.

Its hard to value a house sometimes. If you had 2 identical houses side by side. 1 was fully carpeted and 1 had wooden/laminate floor throughout. The one with laminate is worth more to me because i would have to get rid of the carpets right away.

I dont think your far wrong with an opening offer of 160,000 - 164,000 if its a house you really like. If it gets rejected, dont make a counter offer right away. Say you need to speak to the bank to see if you can squeeze anymore money out of them. Make it clear you're very close to the maximum you can borrow (even if your not).

Its a funny old game!!

Good Luck!
 
Have you considered asking the sellers what they want direct?
I'm on my 7th house and have done this at least 3 times.
Make an agreement between the two of you, then go to the solicitors to make it official.
Solicitors don't like it, but there's sod all actually wrong with it.
 
I think I asked you before why the solicitors care, but it's something to do with the solicitors being the estate agents in scotland (?)
 
If it was me i would speak to the EA, see what (if any) offers had been made and take it from there.

Don't forget, the EAs work for the seller - they are not obliged to help the buyer in any way :)
 
Don't forget, the EAs work for the seller - they are not obliged to help the buyer in any way :)

This is true, however if they dont sell the house - 99% of the time they get zero monies.

Lets just say the agreed selling rate is 1.5%.

1.5% of 160,000 is £2400

1.5% of 175,000 is £2625

Its hardly worth the bother for the EA to push for a higher sales figure when theres a reasonable offer on the table. Grab a sale while you can and move onto the next. Dont forget the next offer might be months or years away. All this time the EA is paying for the property to be on Rightmove etc.
 
I think I asked you before why the solicitors care, but it's something to do with the solicitors being the estate agents in scotland (?)

Yes, we don't have estate agents up here.
Solicitors sell houses.
I can't see any reasons why English sellers and buyers can't strike a deal between themselves though?
Rather than the incessant to-ing and fro-ing between people who claim they can't get a hold of each other and they're waiting for a return call etc.etc.:boring:
 
Yes, we don't have estate agents up here.
Solicitors sell houses.

Do you mean Aberdeen only? Because there are hundreds of estate agents all over the central belt. Solicitors do sell houses as well, but in the majority of cases only perform the actual conveyancing, with the estate agent doing the rest.
 
Do you mean Aberdeen only? Because there are hundreds of estate agents all over the central belt. Solicitors do sell houses as well, but in the majority of cases only perform the actual conveyancing, with the estate agent doing the rest.

Certainly in Aberdeen, there aren't many estate agents that are estate agents only (I can't think of any, off hand)
They are usually firms of solicitors who sell houses as well.
You get around the law about the selling agent not being able to do the conveyancing by employing a different branch.
I.E. the house is sold in Branch A, solicitor in branch B represents you.
 
Most unconventional deal I did was with a colleague.
I wanted to sell, he wanted to buy.
We struck a deal and walked into an estate agent/solicitor together.

"Morning, I want to sell my house...and this guy wants to buy it"

Man, they really don't like you cutting them out like that.:D
 
This is true, however if they dont sell the house - 99% of the time they get zero monies.

Lets just say the agreed selling rate is 1.5%.

1.5% of 160,000 is £2400

1.5% of 175,000 is £2625

Its hardly worth the bother for the EA to push for a higher sales figure when theres a reasonable offer on the table. Grab a sale while you can and move onto the next. Dont forget the next offer might be months or years away. All this time the EA is paying for the property to be on Rightmove etc.

Yes but I just want to make it clear that they are trying to secure a sale - they will quite happily tell you they have a number of offers of x or get in quick etc, when they are just trying to make it appear a popular property - they are just sales-people after all.
 
Most unconventional deal I did was with a colleague.
I wanted to sell, he wanted to buy.
We struck a deal and walked into an estate agent/solicitor together.

"Morning, I want to sell my house...and this guy wants to buy it"

Man, they really don't like you cutting them out like that.:D

Someone in my town recently did a house-swap - they wanted to upgrade, found someone that wanted to down-grade. They certainly never walked into an estate-agent afterwards :)

Generally down here we prefer to negotiate via an intermediary though.
 
Be cheeky. They can only say no.

I do a bit of buying and selling in property (for my pension fund) and i always lowball offer in the first instance. I think £140,000 is a bit low looking at it from face value and they will tell you where to go, but you may have a shout at £150k.

Having said that, you never know. You don't know the sellers situation and nothing is moving at the moment. Its a buyers market.

So in retrospect, i would go in at £140k and just see what they say. Just don't be taken in by estate agent guff, if they say that the seller won't accept the offer. Ask them firmly to put the offer in to the seller. The agent will always want as close to asking as poss for the commision so will always try to dissuade you from lowballing.

Believe me, you would be surprised at what some properties go for simply because people in general won't lowballl for fear of being cheeky as buyers just assume the seller won't accept. There are bargains to be had in this climate so i would have good luck round before committing to any purchase.

Alternatively as the poster above has said. You can cut out the middle man by posting a letter through their door with an offer. It does work in some cases.
 
Alternatively as the poster above has said. You can cut out the middle man by posting a letter through their door with an offer. It does work in some cases.

How does this help?
 
How does this help?

Sorry, i've just realised what you meant, after re-reading the posts. They did a house swap but the general theory is the same.

Your cutting out the estate agent and their 2-4% fee's. You'll still need a solicitor and all the checks etc but you can save a lot of money by going straight to the buyer with an offer. Obviously the seller may incur the wrath of the estate agent if they cancel them as representitives and then sell but its the sellers perogitive to do so.

Tbf, this is really only applicable to people who deal a lot in property and have the cash to make purchases outright but it can be a feasible option in some cases, and more so if you know the person who is selling.
 
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